⭐
A romance overlaid by a little sleuthing, this book is an
epic fail for us.
Isabelle (Belle) Ashford, a teacher at a university, has
inherited a house in Danville which she plans to renovate and sell. She meets the
deputy sheriff Ally Yates and is immediately drawn to her. There is mutual lust
which leads to them getting involved even as Belle stumbles upon clues that
indicate that young Judy, who once lived in that house was sexually abused and possibly
committed suicide. Belle pesters Ally to chase the clues and find out what
happened with Judy.
Belle is spontaneous, funny, wears her heart on her sleeve,
genuine though a little ditzy. She is also supposed to have a history of
rushing into relationships headlong and the regretting it. On the whole, she is
rather likeable.
Our problem is Ally. There is nothing that warms us to that character.
Between the two, she doesn’t really seem into Belle or into the relationship.
She kind of superior and supercilious.
Belle does all the legwork to chase down possible leads and
she has to constantly practically beg Ally to act. Even in their ‘romance’
Belle is the one giving herself and making changes in her life.
When Belle discovers (spoiler alert) that Ally’s mentor is a
serial paedophile who has even tried his tricks on Ally’s niece; first Ally
freezes Belle out then she actually storms to rage at her for having spoken to
her niece! This is unforgivable on many counts: first, Ally is not there for
the person she claims to love; second, she is a failure as a policewoman;
third, she is supposed to be a ‘mother’ to her niece, and instead of having any
feeling about what happened with her niece, she actually fights with
Belle for having given the child an ear!
And after all that, Belle misses Ally and gladly gets back
to her when Ally makes the first overture. That seems to be extremely dysfunctional
even though it is keeping in line with the description that Belle has a
penchant for bad relationships and choosing wrong partners.
On the whole, this book actually left us angry.
⭐
